Dan Carpenter: Glenda Ritz stifled before she even gets started

Dec. 7, 2012

Written by

Dan Carpenter

If there were any doubts that Glenda Ritz won herself an uphill job last month, they would have been dispelled by Wednesday's meeting of the State Board of Education.

The event opened with a futile plea from Ritz to the board she will chair come January as state superintendent of public instruction.

Next up was a tribute to outgoing Superintendent Tony Bennett from Gov. Mitch Daniels, read by a board member, essentially saying Bennett had placed the welfare of children above winning elections.

At the end of more than two hours, a sweeping package that eases teacher and administrator licensing requirements, opposed by Ritz and the vast majority of the overflow audience of educators, passed 9-2 with several amendments approved mostly on the fly.

"It's very sad and embarrassing to see our State Board of Education act like that," said Shirley Wright, director of the Indiana Middle Level Education Association. "There were obviously a lot of questions and they still passed it."

In their hurry hangs a tale.

REPA II, the followup to the Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability adopted in 2010, is Bennett's final accomplishment and most likely would not be pursued by Ritz, who joins a chorus of educators who maintain it lowers professional standards by watering down various requirements of training and classroom experience. She and most of the other two dozen speakers asked that the board table the measure until it could be further studied and debated. Given that major changes were made just last week and again during the meeting itself, that seemed reasonable -- and arguably is required by law.

Also reasonable is the assumption politics is involved. The educators and several board members traded jibes about that, with retired longtime North Central High School teacher Jill Lyday saying, "It appears every attempt has been made to stifle (Ritz) before she even takes office and deny the wishes of 1.3 million voters."

In fact, stifling has come both before and since the election. Daniels, Bennett and the General Assembly have overseen a significant shift in power away from the Department of Education and toward the state board, 10 of whose 11 members are appointed by the governor. With Republican Mike Pence succeeding Daniels, the Democrat Ritz always will be a minority.

In that regard, Wednesday's crowded, contentious meeting was a dress rehearsal for four years of courting a newly elevated panel that, while far from monolithic or closed-minded, has a course set that is not the new chief's.

Noting that REPA II has unknown financial impact, was not in final draft form Wednesday, and follows scant evaluation of REPA I, Ritz declared, "We cannot afford to have unqualified teachers in our classrooms" at a time of intense state stress on accountability.

In the end, the board backed off some in response to protests. Exactly how, and how much, was a matter of conjecture. Ritz, presumably, will have room and time to work that out. Board willing.

"The department will still obviously have a role and do some vetting," board member and Marian University President Daniel Elsener said, "based on the directions we give them."